On Thursday, May 25, Internews Ukraine presented 2 multilingual online platforms dedicated to ensuring the remembrance of and accountability for Russia's crimes in Ukraine: Kremlin's Voice and The Book of Memory.
They can serve as a repository of evidence for the purposes of bringing Russia's propagandists and war criminals to justice for Russian aggression and savagery.
"Propaganda is an inalienable part of Russia's predatory politics. It created the informational ground for military aggression, the mobilization of the Russian people, and the state campaign of genocide. As a result of this propaganda, 76% of Russians support atrocities of their soldiers in Ukraine," noted Anastasiia Herasymchuk, an analyst at Internews Ukraine.
Kremlin's Voice is a database of Russian propagandists and their statements on Ukraine. It contains dossiers on 69 "journalists," "experts," "bloggers," and "social activists" who deliberately disseminate criminal narratives promoting the war, inciting hatred, and demonizing Ukraine and other countries. These narratives violate international law.
Examples of the most aggressive statements made by Russia's propagandists are published on the platform and can serve as evidence base when they are brought before criminal prosecution. Among them are well-known propagandists like Olga Skabeyeva, Dmitry Kiselyov, and Margarita Simonyan, as well as less famous purveyors of Russian inhumanity.
All who are interested can expand this database by sharing the names of new propagandists and proof of their hostile activity. Analysts at Internews Ukraine will assess this information and create a dossier on the accused.
The Book of Memory is a collection of stories from witnesses and victims of Russian war crimes, including kidnapping and deportations, torture and murders of civilians, and strikes on residential buildings and infrastructure.
"Each story is unique. However, they all have one common thing - they are testimonies about horrific events that had happened because of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The Book of Memory" is a virtual archive --- a place to understand the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war," explained Alona Hryshko, senior analyst at Internews Ukraine.
The aim of The Book is to document the experiences of the victims of Russian aggression and help witnesses to share their stories with the world. 29 stories from different regions of Ukraine have been recorded into 5 languages: Ukrainian, English, Spanish, German, and French.
All texts are illustrated with images generated by artificial intelligence. This will help readers to fully experience everything that the subjects of the stories went through. They include the story of Hanna Sytnyk, whose house in the Kyiv region was hit by a Russian missile; and of Vadym Kutsenko, who spent 110 days in a Russian torture chamber in Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast.
Experts from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and other organisations have been involved in collecting these testimonies. All Ukrainians have the chance to share their own stories, so they can be added to pages of an online book afterwards.
"The aim of Russia's informational aggression is not to defraud, but to eliminate the opponent. The Kremlin's propagandistic narratives have been preparing the Russian soldiers for the invasion and justifying this for a long time. Our Kremlin's Voice and The Book of Memory platforms show these lasting ties between propaganda and war crimes," argued Volodymyr Yermolenko, Director of Analytics at Internews Ukraine.
The project is implemented through the program "Strengthening Ukraine's positions on the information front," funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD) through the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).
